Di Resta: Aborted Q2 lap was team’s call

2013 Malaysian Grand Prix

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Paul di Resta says the decision to pit during Q2 which cost him a chance to get into the top ten was down to his team.

Di Resta aborted a lap on a dry track to chance tyres during the session but when he returned to the circuit the rain had started to fall.

“We obviously hit it wrong,” said Di Resta after Q3. “We’ve got it wrong on the pit wall, I think.”

“We should have continued the lap we were on at the beginning. We chose to abort and unfortunately on the out-lap it started raining.”

He added the team had seen the incoming shower on their radar: “Yeah they had done and essentially it was their call, they called me in, so I’m sure they’ll stick their hand up to it.

“They’re only trying to do their best job. It’s frustrating as it is at the moment, you just need to calm down slightly before you go back into the office.

“But we’re all out here to do one thing and that’s to be quick. Up until this point this weekend I must say everybody’s been at the top of their performance level we’ll keep plugging away and we’ll be constructive about it.”

“Unfortunately after such a strong weekend from where we were I think we’ve got a lot of work to do tomorrow,” he added. “But on the positive side we’ve got a strong car and essentially that’s going to be key to getting us through. We have got four sets of fresh rubber, people who’ve surrounded us will have the same but we won’t give up without a fight.”

The missed opportunity caused some friction in the garage, Di Resta’s engineer telling him “don’t shake your head at me” as the chequered flag fell on Q2. “We misjudged it,” he added. “It looked like it was a completely different tyre set.”

Deputy team principal Bob Fernley said: “It’s just disappointing, a little bit deflating, when you think you should have put them both into Q3.”

2013 Malaysian Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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51 comments on “Di Resta: Aborted Q2 lap was team’s call”

  1. Di Resta was wonderfully bitter talking to Jennie Gow on Radio5. It was about the most animated I’ve seen him.

  2. Paul should just shut up and drive. It doesn’t help now the fact that his team made a mistake. Finger-pointing will not get him starting further up but will definetly worsen his relashionship with his engineers. Someone should tell him that.

    1. Honestly cant wait for this guy to leave F1. He brings nothing to the sport and I think its safe to say the only reason he’s still here is because 1) he’s British and 2) his nationality Force India’s sponsors guaranteed interviews throughout each race weekend.

      1. Antonio (@frosty-jacks-racing-team)
        23rd March 2013, 14:55

        +1. Its obvious the BBC would take interest over the last couple of years, but his ‘rookie’ time is long gone. When he started all his talk about find his feet and dealing with issues was seen as mature and intelligent. Now every time he says the word ‘we’ in an interview I wince. Seriously grow some balls and accept some responsibility that your falling into the realms of average! Your a bloody F1 driver, go take a bath in some money and cheer up.

        1. Go back two years and everyone was hailing Di resta as the new saviour of F1. why so much hate for him all of a sudden?

          1. Heck.. go back to the start of the season and everyone was bashing Force india for giving sutil another chance…now everyone loves him all of a sudden on the back of one good performance.

          2. @aimalkhan It’s a well known phrase that an F1 driver is only as good as his last race. A lot of people have no issues with completely changing their opinions on a whim and simply jump on whatever bandwagon happens to be rolling at the time.

            See opinions on the Hamilton to Mercedes move as an ideal recent example; a complete shift in opinions by the masses based solely on the first race of the season.

            You’ll get used to it pretty quickly if you frequent F1 sites that feature online discussion, or even if you just read mainstream F1 media. UK journalists are especially notorious for bigging up their sports stars only to tear them to shreds as soon as they have a provocative story to run with. The sad thing is that most people seem to buy into it.

      2. Pretty sure his gonna get fired after the season. Its going to be very interesting to see how the Diresta fanclub (brittish press) is going to explain that.

  3. I am getting a bit disappointed by Di Resta’s attitude, it seems he is of the opinion that anything bad that happens isn’t his fault, and he needs to start taking some responsibility. If he felt it was a bad decision at the time he should have contested it, and if he thought it was the correct thing to do when he was told, then he is just as much to blame. Either way he cannot simply blame the team when he doesn’t do as well as he should.

    1. I agree! Getting fed up of his moaning and constant blaming of the team. Schumacher and Alonso have both demonstrated how to win and lose together with the team, without badmouthing them when things go wrong. Paul needs to take a leaf out of their books.

  4. Granted it was the team’s mistake. Gives him NO RIGHT to blame his team to the media. He should learn to resolve these issues internally.

  5. this guy is always complaining about something…
    i remember last year the only team radios i’ve heard from him are complaining, mostly about traffic in qualifying

    1. Alonso did that for months in a row in Ferrari last season and was considered a warrior, a fighter, a hungry driver etc etc etc. But I agree with you: it is just annoying.

      1. OmarR-Pepper (@)
        23rd March 2013, 15:59

        Don’t forget the new annoying nickname “superhuman” LOL so Massa now is De-superhumanizing him

        1. Right, did you dream last night that nickname or it just popped your mind when writing the comment? I saw a tendency in your comments to always criticize Alonso but at least do it based on real reasons not your fantasy.
          P.S I can’t see how Massa is ‘dehumanizing’ Alonso when he consistently finishes behind him.

      2. If that is what you like to believe.

  6. in the end this was just bad luck, i saw an interview with bob fernley? on sky who echoed di restas comments in that it was the teams decision because they thought the rain would not come for another 5 minutes. Di resta does sound annoyed, and sounds mildly arrogant, but he does have the right to be (annoyed) to an extent. I have to say the title of this article does make it sound like di resta was ruder about his team then he actually was.

  7. “don’t shake your head at me” Haha, Di Resta on the naughty step ?

  8. Oh dear, it seems like the prospect of getting totally annihilated by his teammate for a 3rd straight season has already got to Paul.

  9. Oh come on give the guy a break, all this di Resta hating is getting ridiculous. The team made a mistake and when asked about what happened should he say it wasn’t the teams fault? Of course he’s frustrated, ok so he could’ve been more professional but he could’ve been worse as well. He didn’t say “The team, they made me lose pole, I did all I had to do…”

    PS. Not a fan of him, just saying show some respect for these guys. Stop hating.

    1. Agree to an extent, but I think the complaining has gone passed the ‘tipping point of forgiveness’ with a lot of F1 fans that are tired with his passing of blame. If I were a Force India team member I would not be happy with this. He could have stayed out and set the lap time if he wanted to, he is the one at the wheel of the car. Overrule the mechanics, do something different, take some responsibility and put your neck on the line Paul, because if this continues you will be out of a drive for 2014. It’s do or die this season.

    2. People are quick to judge, they did the same to sutil, saying he was a criminal and doesn’t deserve a seat, but look now, he shut a few mouths. I think PDR is talented, he just needs to concentrate more in his driving, or else he is in danger of being replaced midway.

    3. On this occasion, I am pretty sure we would have heard some emotional expressions on the radio from every driver who – being just about the only one on a lap in the dry then gets called in to abort and return to the pits, only for rain to start falling.

      What I find interesting is what they mention about the set of tyres being

      “It looked like it was a completely different tyre set.”

      – does that mean that for a moment they thought they had sent him out on a set of Adrians tyres? That would explain why it was unavoidable to pull him in, as its looked on as a pretty serious offence.

  10. I think we have a broken record here about the amount of whinges Paul does. He just doesn’t want to admit that Adrian is better then him and he was benched for a year. This is well and truly last year for the Scotsmen and he was eyeing a podium for this year but that has to seem of evaporated quickly.

  11. His frustration is understood but I suspect the team called him in since he didn’t pull out a fast enough lap on that set of tires as I saw that Sutil continued. It’s disappointing to see PdR so negative about stuff. It’s understandable that it frustrates a lot and he can show his anger in the garage but it shouldn’t come out in public like this.

  12. DiResta should know better – all top drivers managed to have their teams work for them not just with them.

  13. And the whining continues. I hope the DIR fans noticed the difference in pace in the dry between him and Sutil. I still see not going for a Sutil/Bianchi line up as a missed opportunity for the team. FI can do without the negative vibes constantly surrounding DIR…

    1. @sutil2013 +1. Dunno why they still put up with him..

  14. All I will say is…thank god this is his last year in f1

    1. OmarR-Pepper (@)
      23rd March 2013, 16:02

      @jleigh for sure? if you know it please let me bring some champagne to celebrate…

    2. +100000

  15. He’s an easy target, and he doesn’t do himself any favours. At least he’s honest, I like that.

    1. Is he always honest though? In this case I’d say he almost definitely is – however much throwing his team under the bus isn’t helping anything. In the past though he’s blamed his performances on the cars in front, the weather, bad setup choices, and in every case managed to resolve himself of responsibility in the process. He sounds more like someone in denial than someone being honest most of the time.

      1. @hawkii

        and in every case managed to resolve himself of responsibility in the process. He sounds more like someone in denial than someone being honest most of the time.

        hehehe lol

  16. The point here is, even if your team has made a mistake, him coming out and publicly blaming for them isn’t a good move. It can only worsen his relationship with the team, and obviously, fans don’t like it. Get on with racing, mate.

  17. Michael Brown (@)
    23rd March 2013, 13:19

    Maybe they chose to abort it because his sector times weren’t good enough. Whatever the reason, it’s never Paul’s fault. Never.

    1. True, his first and second sectors were quite slow, I don’t think that that lap was good enough for Q3.

  18. Chris (@tophercheese21)
    23rd March 2013, 13:36

    Lol if anyone follows him on twitter, it looks like he’s been trying to make amends for his somewhat negative comments about the team. Lol

  19. I love the Pope
    23rd March 2013, 14:34

    Sutil out qualified DiResta. Sutil is better. :)

    1. …and since Di Resta outqualified Sutil last week, Di Resta is better. They’re both better than each other! Glad we’ve got that sorted out.

  20. All drivers complain sometime but DIR is starting to get to me and I am pretty tolerant of driver quirks.

    I think it’s mainly because at the moment he isn’t showing aptitude or attitude. He wants to be picked up by a top team but isn’t showing any really stand out results his team mates don’t replicate or better, and on top of that slagging of the team now?

    I’m not a Sutil fan really but finding myself being drawn into his camp in the force India battle. Now there is a man driving like he is glad to be in a F1 seat.

    1. @hyakuyagami

      I’m not a Sutil fan really but finding myself being drawn into his camp in the force India battle. Now there is a man driving like he is glad to be in a F1 seat.

      Exactly! That kind of attitude and energy from Sutil makes it comparatively EASY to support him! He genuinely knows the value of the seat he has in existential terms (work that out) as opposed to sponsorship dollars or salary. To do something as unique and amazing as be an F1 driver, but then have that taken away from you (Regardless of how you might’ve precipitated the loss), yet then get it BACK AGAIN…it can’t help but encouraging sympathetic, admirable emoting on the part of Sutil that draws us fans to him. And then compare Sutil’s sheer joy at driving again to Di Resta’s interminable whining and, welll…Go Sutil!

  21. Paul di Resta says the decision to run wide and then spin in Turn 8 during Q2, which cost him a place in the top ten, was down to his team.

    “We’ve got it wrong on the pit wall, I think,” said Di Resta after Q3. “We should have continued trying to drive on the racing line. We chose to spin and unfortunately it didn’t improve the laptime.”

    He added the team had predicted the potential loss of time through spinning during simulator work: “Yeah they had done and essentially it was their call, they were remotely controlling the steering wheel, so I’m sure they’ll stick their hand up to it.

    “But we’re all out here to do one thing and that’s to be a bit mediocre. Up until this point in my F1 career I must say everybody’s been at the top of their performance level, so we’ll keep plugging away and we’ll be constructive about it.”

    “We have got four sets of fresh excuses, people who’ve surrounded us will have the same but we won’t give up without a fight with my engineer.”

    Sutil’s more eye-catching start to the season has caused some friction in the garage, Di Resta telling him, “Don’t drive so fast, how do you expect me to get my long-overdue promotion to a top team and prove that I’m better than Vettel? After all, I beat him in F3!” as the chequered flag fell on Q2. “We misjudged it,” Sutil apologised. “I’ll work through the data with the engineers tonight and see where I can lose some more time.”

    Deputy team principal Bob Fernley said: “It’s just disappointing, a little bit deflating, when you think they should both have dropped out in Q2 like true midfielders.”

    1. * ROFL! *

    2. Haha, that was hilarious.

  22. man, nobody slags their team as much as this guy. how does he still have a drive?

  23. I dunno guys, I think he and the car were looking pretty handy watching the onboard. If it weren’t for the rain im sure we’d have seen both FI’s in Q3. Whether it him or the team that made the call us a different matter.

    And spare me the British nonsense please. I’m no Di Resta fan myself.

  24. I dont understand. DiResta spun twice in Q2 on those medium tires. If the team asked him to abort, its the right call since he wasnt doing anything. He could have choosed to go out with inters though.

    1. He spun twice when it was raining on the track. This happened after they originally sent him out at the start of the session only to abort a timed lap and bring him back into the pits.

  25. Time to make some room for Bianchi, Paul.

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